I'm using Mac OS X Server and want to allow the users that connect to their network accounts to store their data on a NAS drive. I want the users to connect to the Lion server as this allows for better policies and management for me and for their afp share to be located on a NAS drive.

I've looked into home directories and network logins however I don't want the users to connect into a different login environment, just an authentication against their provided account on the Lion server and for their finder to take them to their own storage area - located on the NAS drive.

Currently I am using FreeNAS for both authentication and storage however there are getting to be far too many people to manage each afp share and account, plus just using FreeNAS is extremely limiting for expansion and if something goes wrong with 1 entity the entire system goes down. Using the Lion server for user accounts and policies will be much better for this expanding business. I have looked into LDAP, using the Lion server as an LDAP server to authenticate against for FreeNAS however I have had issues with this and thought a different approach could be better from the other side of the situation... Providing the account with somewhere to store data rather than the afp share authenticating against an LDAP server.

I am wrong to try it this way? Is it possible to logically add storage to a Mac OS X Server which can be recognised as a local drive, so can be used for network accounts?